A Carcross RCMP officer has pleaded guilty to assault.
Const. Jason Potter, 38, entered the plea yesterday in Yukon Territorial Court.
Court records show no plea has been entered for a second charge of uttering threats.
Yukon RCMP Staff Sgt. Brad Kaeding said Potter is currently on medical leave. He had been on administrative duties.
Few details are known about what happened the night of May 15. But they will have to come out before Potter is sentenced in October.
The victim in this case, Carcross resident Duke Beattie, was originally charged with resisting arrest and threatening Potter, Potter’s wife and a second officer. Those charges were eventually withdrawn.
On May 15 at approximately 8 p.m. Carcross RCMP “responded to a complaint in the community” and took a man into custody, according to an RCMP news release from the time Potter was charged.
“Following the arrest, an RCMP member reported to his detachment commander that he was involved in an incident while transporting the prisoner,” the release says.
The incident was investigated by the Yukon RCMP Major Crimes unit and reviewed by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team. After that the charges were laid.
Potter has been with the RCMP for five years and has been assigned to the Carcross detachment since February 2013. He was previously stationed at Whitehorse.
Kaeding said a conviction for assault does not necessarily mean Potter is going to lose his job with the police.
The situation is currently making its way through an internal RCMP investigation, he said.
The final punishment from that depends on the circumstances of each individual case, Keading said.
It could mean a range of things from a reprimand to the loss of pay to being fired.
To avoid any conflict of interest, a prosecutor from British Columbia has been brought on, Yukon prosecutor Noel Sinclair told the News in June.
“We want to ensure that not only is justice done, but it is seen to be done fairly and impartially,” Sinclair said.
“To remove any potential notion that Const. Potter is being treated differently because of his past connection to this office, we retain somebody who doesn’t have a connection with the detachment member.”
Contact Ashley Joannou at
ashleyj@yukon-news.com